There’s never a dull moment spent on a 7.5-mile float trip down Elk River toward Pineville, Missouri. Locals and visitors enjoy this seasonal activity of time spent with family and friends gently floating down the river.
After all, you can burn up to 350 calories an hour depending on your body weight and the river’s class rating or difficulty. Alright, so you might not burn 350 calories floating down Elk River.
That raises a good point: Elk River is rated below a class-I river, meaning it has few rapids and fewer river obstacles to negotiate. That makes it an ideal family-friendly float river.
It also helps to understand that Elk River’s average depth measures 3.3 feet, which places it into a low flow rate category that is calm and manageable for novice river-goers seeking to stay cool this summer.
Although, no float trip is complete without a dry sack to tow along down the river. But what is so special about the dry pack? Aside from keeping everything dry, it’s an excellent way to tote along four snacks with a purpose.
- Sweet and Sour
- Protein Boosters
- Drinks for Hydration
- Fresh Fruit and Vegetable
All these snack ideas provide sustainable energy and hydration to keep your energy up, which helps you enjoy every minute on the river.
Sweet and Sour Snacks
There is no better combination for managing your electrolytes when it comes to sweet and sour snacks. The heat index in southwest Missouri can be particularly brutal in July, so keeping your electrolytes stable with a balanced blend of sugars and salts will help keep you having fun and staying calm and more relaxed while in the sun.
A fantastic sweet and sour snack that is pre-packaged and re-sealable is trail mix, a must-have on Elk River. Trail mixes are available premade or ho; here’s an easy recipe we found online.
To keep it simple, you can grab some Ziploc snack bags and toss in your favorite salted nut or seed, throw in a preferred dried fruit, like raisins, a few M&M’s, and BAM; you’ve got a personalized trail mix for your float trip.
Protein Snack Boosts
Protein is an excellent choice for float trips. It can help sustain your energy levels all day long. For example, one cup of nuts has 27 grams of protein, which equals 813 calories.
If you’re watching your calorie intake, you can always reach for a Quest White Chocolate Raspberry, which contains 190 calories and only 1 gram of sugar.
Hydrating Snacks
Drinking river water is not advisable, so you should be packing plenty of hydrating snacks. It may sound strange to think of water as a snack, but water intake speeds up your metabolism, making you feel full.
It plays a significant role in staying well-hydrated while outdoors. After all, your body will sweat more than three liters of water an hour just sitting in the sun. That works out to six pounds of water weight loss in a single hour.
While you might not think of hydration as a snack, it’s essential to being out in the sun all day. A good rule of thumb is having 64 ounces of water for every person in a floating device. In addition, some manufacturers make water bladders that hold up to 100 fluid ounces of water.
Pack Fresh Fruits and Vegetable Snacks
Other excellent snack choices are fresh fruits and vegetables, like apples, pears, oranges, or carrots. All these choices can play a part in replenishing your electrolytes too.
Dehydrated fruits are also an excellent option since these snacks are less like to bruise or get mashed while on the river.
Top Snack Picks
For us at Lazy Days Resort & Campground, our top picks for a well-packed dry sack for a float down Elk River is a snack-size bag of shelled pistachios, a Cliff bar, chili cover dried mangos, 32 ounces of bottled water, and one packet of strawberry kiwi flavored Propel.
Booking Your Elk River Float
If you’re planning a float trip down Elk River, we at Lazy Days Resort & Campground would love to have you stay with us. We offer all our guests access to set off on an Elk River float trip right from our property.
We have some of the valley’s premier Elk River RVing sites at the Lazy Days Resort. We are only a one-minute drive southwest of Interstate 49. Take exit 5 at mile marker 6. The resort location is between Noel and Pineville, Missouri.
Book your stay today and your float trip too. Here’s what some of our recent guests had to say about their stays at Lazy Days Resort & Campground!